BILL NUMBER: SB 592 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 28, 1999
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 20, 1999
INTRODUCED BY Senator Morrow
FEBRUARY 23, 1999
An act to add Section 19610.41 to the Business and Professions
Code, relating to horse racing, making an appropriation therefor, and
declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 592, as amended, Morrow. Horse racing: possessory interest
tax offset.
(1) Existing law requires a racing association or fair that
deducts a specified percentage of the amount handled by a racing
meeting or satellite wagering facility, in lieu of any license or
excise tax or fee being imposed by the city or county in which that
meeting or facility is located, to first apply that deducted amount
for the payment of ad valorem taxes on possessory interests in real
property, before transmitting the remaining balance of the deducted
amount to the city or county.
This bill would provide that with respect to cities in San Diego
County only, pursuant to such a city's filing of a claim with the
Controller in the 1999-2000 fiscal year, require the reimbursement to
that city from the General Fund of the total amount, otherwise
transmitted to that city during the immediately preceding fiscal
year, that was instead applied by a racing association or fair for
the payment of ad valorem taxes on possessory interests in real
property. This bill would, for the 1999-2000 fiscal year,
appropriate from the General Fund to the Controller the total amount
required to make these reimbursements.
(2) The California Constitution provides that a local or special
statute is invalid in any case of a general statute can be made
applicable.
This bill would declare that, due to unique circumstances
pertaining to cities in San Diego County that this bill is intended
to remedy, a general statute within the meaning of specified
provisions of the California Constitution cannot be made applicable
and a special statute is necessary.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) In 1995, the state required those associations or fairs that
conduct a racing meeting or operate a satellite wagering facility to
retain amounts deducted by those associations or fairs under the
authority of certain statutes for the payment of ad valorem taxes on
possessory interests in real property held by those associations or
fairs.
(b) This requirement has had the effect of commensurately reducing
the amount of revenues received by cities in San Diego County in
which subject associations and fairs conduct racing meetings or
operate satellite wagering facilities, and thereby seriously
impacting the ability of those cities to adequately fund basic public
services.
(c) If the state had directly established a property tax exemption
with respect to possessory interests in real property held by racing
associations or fairs, state law would have required the state, in
the absence of a contrary provision, to reimburse cities in San Diego
County for their property tax revenue losses resulting from that
exemption.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this act to
offset the fiscal impact upon cities in San Diego County of a prior
legislative act that has the same fiscal result as a property tax
exemption.
SEC. 2. Section 19610.41 is added to the Business and Professions
Code, to read:
19610.41. (a) For the 1999-2000 fiscal year, both of the
following apply:
(1) Each city in San Diego County in which a racing meeting was
conducted or a satellite wagering facility was operated during the
immediately preceding fiscal year shall, upon the filing of a claim
by that city in accordance with subdivision (b), receive a possessory
interest tax reimbursement amount.
(2) The possessory interest tax reimbursement amount for a city in
San Diego County in which a racing meeting was conducted or a
satellite wagering facility was operated during the immediately
preceding fiscal year is equal to the total amount of revenue,
deducted during that same fiscal year pursuant to Section 19610.3 or
19610.4 with respect to racing meetings conducted in that city or
satellite wagering facilities operated in that city, that was
retained pursuant to those sections for the payment of ad valorem
taxes on possessory interests in real property.
(b) (1) In each fiscal year, a claim filed by a city in San Diego
County pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) is timely and
proper if it complies with all of the following:
(A) The claim is in the form of a resolution approved by the
governing body of the filing city that specifically requests
reimbursement pursuant to this section.
(B) The claim is filed with the Controller on or before September
30, or, for the 1999-2000 fiscal year, on or before November 1 of
that fiscal year.
(C) The claim specifies the filing city's possessory interest tax
reimbursement amount and is filed with written documentation
confirming that specified amount.
(2) On or before April 1 of each fiscal year, the Controller shall
pay each timely and proper claim filed during that fiscal year.
(c) The Controller may audit any claim or payment made pursuant to
this section, or may request the State Board of Equalization to
audit any claim or payment as so described.
(d) Any claim by a city in San Diego County that the reimbursement
requirements of this section have not been complied with may be
presented directly to the Legislature, and neither Section 905.2 nor
Section 945.4 of the Government Code shall apply to that claim.
(e) For the 1999-2000 fiscal year, there is hereby appropriated
from the General Fund to the Controller, for purposes of funding
reimbursements pursuant to this section, an amount equal to the total
amount of possessory interest tax reimbursement amounts for which
valid claims for payment may be filed in that fiscal year under
this section. The amount appropriated pursuant to this
subdivision for each fiscal year shall be determined by the
Controller no later than June 1 of the immediately preceding fiscal
year, except that the amount appropriated pursuant to this
subdivision for the 1999-2000 fiscal year shall be so determined no
later than October 1 of that fiscal year. Any amounts appropriated
pursuant to this subdivision for a fiscal year that are not required
by this section to be paid to a city in San Diego County during that
fiscal year shall, at the end of that fiscal year, revert to the
General Fund. this section.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that, because of unique
circumstances applicable only to cities in San Diego County, a
statute of general applicability cannot be enacted within the meaning
of subdivision (b) of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution. Therefore, this special statute is necessary.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to provide timely fiscal relief to cities in San Diego
County that provide public services that are essential to the
profitable and proper conduct of racing meetings and the operation of
satellite wagering facilities, it is necessary that this act take
effect immediately.